Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: You know the old story, if you find something that you like and love, you won't work a day in your life.
I was certainly blessed to have that time with Janet and helping society. In Ottawa, you are listening to exploring.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Satir's legacy, the Virginia Satir podcast. I am your host, Michael argumnes Hardin, and together we will embark on the journey of self discovery, empowerment and meaningful connection.
Let's dive in. Today we have a special treat. We will be honoring the work and life of Doctor Janet Christy Seeley. She is an important figure in the Virginia Satir world, passing away in 2022 after a battle with Alzheimer's and complications from COVID I will be talking to her surviving husband, Tom Wright and his friends and Janet's friends, Doctor John Banman and doctor Richard Kennedy.
Doctor Janet Christy Seeley was a vibrant mother, grandmother, family physician, family therapist, author, artist, lecturer, professor and trainer in the Satir model. Janet is remembered for being an avid learner, creative, intelligent, a beautiful spirit, and a non judgmental human. She pioneered a family systems approach to family medicine, bringing family therapy and medicine together, and founded the Ottawa Satir Learning Center. Janet taught locally and internationally. Janet always saw the best in people and lived life to its absolute fullest with enthusiasm and passion. She leads a legacy of her paintings, her teachings, her care for community of patients, all infused with her revolutionary spirit of meaningful interaction, pioneering innovation, and a desire to help people. Please join me as I welcome Tom Wright, doctor John Banman and doctor Richard Kennedy.
I want to welcome each of our guests today, starting with Tom Wright. Tom, I'm so glad to have you on the podcast today.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: One of the things that I have realized is I missed out. I really wish I could have known your wife, Janet. Christy. Silly. It would have been wonderful. I hear so many great things about her from you, but from everybody within Virginia Satir's universe. Right. And I also wanted to invite a couple of your friends, John Banman, who many of us know very well just because of just his teachings and trainings that he's done over the years, his friendship with Virginia Satir, the books that he's authored, and also Richard Kennedy and all that he's contributing and what he has helped us to know about just parts, parties and working with parts. So bringing your friends together so all of us can have a conversation to talk about. Janet Christy Seeley. Tom, welcome. John. Yeah, Richard, welcome to this podcast.
[00:03:01] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:03:03] Speaker C: Tom, would you like to start us off by just, just talking a little bit about your 25 year marriage and this wonderful woman that we're about to talk about.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Thank you.
Yes.
I married Janet when I was 57 and she was 58.
She was born in London, England, and spent time in Montreal getting certified as a medical doctor. She was also capable of painting.
I left public teaching when I was 57, and she shortly left the medical field in Ottawa, Canada, and did Satir work. And we established the Satir Learning center of Ottawa in Canada. Janet kept her professional name, Janet Christi Seedy, and I kept mine, too, Tom Wright. So Janet, did Satir work around the world? I accompanied her in many of the workshops. She traveled to 17 different countries.
She was a capable lecturer. She lectured to up to 3000 people.
In the case of South Korea, she was invited to the medical conference there, which was a real honor for a woman to be invited there.
She was also teaching satir in her grandfather's hospital and medical center in Shenyang in northeastern China.
That was quite an honor. I accompanied her there and in many of the places helped facilitate sculpting and organization of the workshops.
A memorable one was going to Portugal, where she had a translator.
And I watched the faces of the people in the audience, and their eyes would get bigger, and then they'd have a big smile, and then they'd look at each other and nod. So we all knew that she was getting her message through about Satir.
She, before leaving the medical center in Ottawa, Canada, she would give private sessions in the hospital to clients as they receive free treatment under what they call Ohip. And that was during the day. She also had a group on Monday night and Wednesday night teaching the Satir models.
She also was ahead of her time.
And she had Virginia come to Montebello, which is a resort outside Ottawa with 80 medical people and their spouses.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: I just recently saw that you donated those to Virginia City Global. That way other people can have access and see the wonderful work that was done there in Montebello.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Correct. And there's a sample of ten or twelve of them. And when you become a member of Satir Global, you can have access to over 100 of them as teaching aides.
She also was an accomplished artist. And you can see over my shoulder, she painted the oceans of the world.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Now our listeners aren't going to be able to see that picture, but we're watching. We're looking at it right now, and it's just amazing. She did beautiful work.
I'm just in awe that she was able to do create that level of realism in a picture.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: She was taught by one other group of sevens, and that was a distinguished artist group in Canada.
On her artwork. She wanted to give, and she sure gave and spread the satir model. So what she did was painted the satir temperature reading poster and listeners can see get that poster free of charge. It's digital by emailing officerglobal.org and they will forward this poster to you.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: I'll also put that link in the description of this podcast. That way people can just use that link and go directly there.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Fine. And her approach, teaching satir, she would literally have a psychiatrist, and beside that psychiatrist would be a taxi driver, and both would come and gain knowledge about the Satir model. So she was very open to all races, indigenous groups, religions, and planted many seeds.
And some of those people that came to the workshop carried on her tradition of teaching about the satir model, which is, I'm sure, very gratifying.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Absolutely. And Tom, one of the reasons why inviting your friends here today was such a great idea is I wanted you to also hear from them some of their stories they remember and some of the things that were just special about Janet Christie Seeley that other people took notice of as well. So if you don't mind, let's open this up and ask Richard first and then John to share a little bit about what they remember about Janet Christie. Silly.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Sure. Well, if they're friends, they'll get me off the hook. Now.
[00:10:03] Speaker D: I knew Janet largely through I learned when Tom and she started coming to Ireland. I remember I always liked the way she dressed. She always was dressed quite nicely. She had a great sense of humor. I liked being around her for having lunch or something, because she always had a great sense of humor. And Tom talking about her art, we have two pieces of art that we bought from her on the wall, my office downstairs. And we do have that, the satir temperature reading, I have it framed it in my, just off to the side of my kitchen.
But some of my more memorable memories was when Janet would get up and do a workshop at Ilearn. She always asked for volunteers, and I always liked getting free therapy from Janet. So I would volunteer. And I remember, and Michael, you were talking about the part stuff.
I was talking about the critical part, my critical part that I recognize long before I knew about the parts model.
And she would say, she would sit with me and I said, well, I know I have these parts. And she said, well, how old's the critical part? I never thought about it. I said probably about five or six, which fits in with the model that you're in the egocentric stage before that.
And then what? She threw me a curveball. She said, well, who came before that? What do you mean? And I went, oh, no, I didn't. You know, I thought I was smart in here. I didn't recognize there was another part, you know, the wounded child part before that. And so I worked with her in the eye, learned that. And then another time, I was.
I was actually filming her. I was part of the archive committee. And so we were videotaping her, and she asked for volunteers. I raised my hand, and she said, oh, richard. So I get somebody else to do the filming. And I came up and got another session with her. And I had been on a workshop with somebody else during the conference and realized there was another part of me I'd never seen before. And I described it. I said, janet, I discovered this in somebody's workshop. And she said, well, describe it. I said, well, it's kind of like the Hulk. You know, that's kind of how I visualize it. It's the Hulk. Because when we did a sort of a psychodrama piece, my other parts, particularly the critical part, was coming down, and this part just went and pushed them all away.
And I said, so I see it as a hulk.
And I realized it's a part that has pushed things away or pushed me through things that were difficult. And I said, I really appreciate discovering that part and knowing that I've got it. I can rely on it as a resource. She said, well, okay, do you have a name for it yet? Because I had named my other parts, and I said, no. She said, well, close your eyes and go inside. And to my surprise, they came up with the name Susie for this Hulk figure.
But I went, okay, I'm just gonna trust my insights. He came up with Susie, and, you know, it was always great learning with her. So that was the other reason for getting up there, which is I was always gonna learn something new. Even though I knew, I thought I knew a lot, I was always gonna learn more when I was working with her. And that was such a treasure.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: And, you know, Richard, one of the things that you're bringing out right now, is it Chris, Janet Christie, silly, was, it's just much more than what she did. It's who she was. She was an enthusiastic person, a passionate person. She was a person that really did care deeply for people and saw their strengths, very much how Virginia Satir is often described. She's just a kind, compassionate woman that. That saw people.
[00:14:09] Speaker D: And she also. But that humorous part, she could be kind and soft and serious. What she's doing work with you but then she'd say something and you just crack up.
She had that wit about her as well, which made it a lot more fun to work with because a lot of my previous therapy had been serious stuff.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: John Bannon, why don't you jump in?
[00:14:31] Speaker E: I'd like to really respect the number of things she offered, Janet's offer.
Satir was very concerned that what she was doing was transferable and that other people could do it. So in those early days, we tried to get other people to set up some kind of opportunity for learning. And she took the lead to set up a very, very well run operated center in Ottawa. And to me, that was a really big contribution.
I think she had I don't know how many people, but her, her facility, her home actually had room for a lot of people, I think more than 50 people at a time, Tom, and were there. So I really like to honor her contribution at that level. So she became a major contributor of teaching the satir model. And I think Tom already referred to all the kind of evenings and weekends that she did. And she especially was interested in family reconstruction, where she. Where we took the whole generation or three generations, and we worked through some kind of harmony. And she was very, very good at doing all that aspect of satir model. And of course, she did travel all over the place, all over the world. But it's that center that brought in so many people and so many professionals that learned how to use and apply the satir model. To me, that was a major, major contribution to Canada and probably to the rest of the world in terms of doing that. I met Virginia Janet in 1983 at a workshop that I was part of. I was part of the faculty. So I had her as a student for four, four weeks in 1983 in Colorado, where she was working with Janet, with Maria Gamorre and Jane Gerber and I. And she's also came to Vancouver to do some work here. So I had a lot of contact, I think, in it. Even after Tom came to the scene, he. We kept on our contact with her in terms of doing that. Another point I'd like to talk about Janet is her interest in learning. She was a perpetual learning. She didn't just learn from one thing. She learned from others. She learned from various groups, various schools, various aspects. And she was able to integrate what she was learning from others into her home base. Her home base was definitely a satir model, but she didn't limit her boundaries to say, okay, I'm only going to learn satir. She did eston, she did all kinds of aspects that were popular at the time and looked into it and incorporated and wrote about it. So I think she is a great learner, a really lifelong learner, and not only at the sort of knowledgeable level, but somehow at the experiential level, she would take what she would learn into an experiential level of reality and make it worth people's growth.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: Well, John, you mentioned. You just mentioned that she was an author. She wrote, and I know that at the time of her death, she was finishing up a book that was really important to the satir world.
And I know that you had a chance to read it before she passed away. Anything you want to mention? Just of the contributions, some of those thoughts that she put down on paper that were just impressive as you went through her book?
[00:19:09] Speaker E: Well, what I liked about it is she was in the book. You know, she was in. It wasn't the third party kind of thing. I write about something way out there. It was very, very personalized aspect of the book. So you. And it started early in her life, so it gave a great history of a human development aspect of it. So she could not only talk about stances, for instance, of satir, but she would talk about how they impact her and how she would use them. But it was always involved with her. So it made her very human and very precious just reading it.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: Now, Tom, John mentioned that Janet Christie Seeley, really one of her focus, it was the family reconstruction. Now, earlier you told me that she had done 80 some odd reconstruction. Family reconstructions. Talk a little bit about that.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Well, she spent a lot of time preparing a person, and she developed a team, anywhere from six to nine people to put on this workshop.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: And were they three day workshops always, yes.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: And people came locally, but they also came from afar.
And as I mentioned earlier, they came from all walks of life and races and religions, which I found interesting, learning about people from around the world.
It also acted as a training method to counselors, for examples, or an ordinary housewife would pitch in and play a role or be a facilitator.
And that was all volunteer work. And Janet definitely volunteered many hours of her time when she was working in the hospital. If she was allowed an hour, that full hours was with the patient and the paperwork was done later.
That's how dedicated she was. And she was at her post right to the very end.
When she was 79, she developed Lady Windermere's disease, which is a chest condition, and then dementia and then COVID. So she certainly kept to her post.
We were very fortunate in the location of this center. It was on a peninsula, so we had control of the environment.
We could park 50 to 60 cars, as I said. And people came back after doing the reconstructions to fine tune things and also to volunteer to help out with the help, personal help that they got. And there was a great camaraderie. There were lots of hugs. Janice was modest, maybe summing it up as she certainly looked for the gold within a person. And of all the work she ever did, there were only two people that didn't stay for a workshop. So that's saying volumes.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Well, I was going to continue further and just ask Richard Kennedy if he had ever been to one of the family reconstructions that Janet, Chrissy, silly put on.
[00:23:22] Speaker D: No, I never got up to Canada to the center. I did the. We did our reconstructions down locally, and they weren't as long, as I said earlier, that other than Janet, Stephen Young's the only one I know that's still doing three and four day family reconstructions because it's a lot of work. Yeah, but I didn't get up to the center to participate with that.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: Before going and talking about Janet a little bit more, John, just to put all this into context, would you like to share anything about just the importance of family reconstructions in the satir model?
[00:24:00] Speaker E: Satir's explanation of family reconstruction is to help people to behold whole.
And so the goal.
The goal is, I hear her, Virginia, is to look at whole in terms of your experience, your lineage of experience.
And we get impacted from generation to generation to generation, and they're not always clean and happy and healthy. And so family reconstruction sort of clears the way. It's like a river that's clouded with branches of trees, and you'll clear the river so it can flow freely. And to me, family reconstruction has that kind of image. It clears the way. So the energy, life energy can flow freely in terms of doing that. So there are all kinds of ways of doing it. And one of those is by externalizing the experience.
And externalizing is by role players. So the role player experience some of the aspects, some of the points of that flowing river and making some kind of transformation so that the person can live in their original human, divine kind of energy.
So it's a very powerful tool to help people to be more congruent, more spiritual, more self, more. I am. In terms of doing that. Is that the kind of thing you want to hear or.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that was great.
I just love that. I just love that we're hearing that. Janet, Christy, silly made it an important part of her, her training life to help people become more whole.
[00:26:16] Speaker E: Yeah, I think it's her major tool.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Tom, can you see something replacing family reconstructions? Because it's a lot of time and effort, and I'm hoping that there's segments of that that can be broken down, because my fear is, well, Janet, when they calculated her pay, it was five to $7 an hour, and you're just not going to see that in the future of people doing that. So I hope that there's ways that family reconstructions can be done in segments.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: So are you asking if there are ways in which family reconstruction can be done, like in a therapy session with clients that are in, because it's broken up in segments, you can do this over time? Is that what you're asking?
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Right. And maybe, you know, small groups, I think family reconstructions are going to be done less and less. That's my gut feeling, because of the enormous amount of time and effort, and I hope with this satir education that's coming forth with new people making and the Satir Institute of the Pacific and North Carolina Satir Institute, that the Satir model is being refined in effective ways for the future.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Now, Richard, I know that you're a psychologist that continues to practice with clients and maybe even small groups. Do you want to answer what Tom was asking?
[00:28:23] Speaker D: I think that the model that she was using with four days and the one that Steve Young uses about three days has gotten, become briefer.
I think Jean McClendon is doing. I mean, she did one at ilearn recently, and I think she's done other ones that are about a day. And I don't know if you know, the bill and Ann Narren Bill wrote a couple books on. He was teaching at Oklahoma State, and he wrote a couple books, and he was doing them, and that's where I joined my wife and I did ours. And he kind of consolidated to a day. And he actually had a group of us that was an interesting model. He got a group of people together. I think there were nine or ten of us, and we each took a month for a family reconstruction. So we'd meet a day of the weekend, and we had the homework all done before we got there.
And then the nine or ten people played roles. So that probably limited how many generations you went back. So we would go do parents and siblings and then maybe grandparents, but beyond that, we ran out of people.
But that was a model that was briefer, and we would meet what we'd have a group of people that were used to role playing and have a group of people who are willing and interested in doing each other's reconstructions. And that model worked pretty well, you know, so that's briefer and less time intensive. If it, you know, and it seemed to be effective. I don't know. I hadn't gone through a three or four day one to know what that would have been like. You know, when we talked about, you mentioned the parts stuff.
It's in Tom's question is, how do we take some of the essential stuff in this and move it to private practice? Cause we all don't have the. The, you know, 15 to 40 people for the parts party or we don't have, you know, as many people or the time for a four day reconstruction.
So how do we take some of that and, you know, and bring it down and make it usable? I think that's what Tom's talking about.
[00:30:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's so important. And, you know, you mentioned Gene McClendon doing training using kind of doing mini family reconstructions. And I was a part of a training that gene did once, summer intensive, where there was a group of, I think, 20 students, and each of us were able to go through a family reconstruction and in a short amount of time, which was amazing because of how many people there were, that. That we all wanted to experience this, and she was able to do that. And we can be creative, and I do think that as a whole, we should be encouraging other people, and I think so. So tir would have encouraged people to take some of these ideas and to kind of make it their own and do it in ways that fit within the environments that they were working in, whether it's small groups or in private counseling.
John, would you like to add your two cent?
[00:31:29] Speaker E: Well, it's not all bad. There are several people who are already doing this. So it's not. I mean, Tom's wish is already in action that people are doing this because they found that they can do it. In the book that I know about, they talk about critical incidents, so they take a look at what are some of the blocks, some of the negative experiences, and transform the energy of that into a positive flow instead of going from day to day today.
Like, you know, if you look at a day, a week's experience in a family reconstruction, you might take every day in terms of doing this. And this new idea, it's not very new, but this idea, you only take events that happen during the wake that have some kind of negative impact. So that's already being done now, and people are writing it, and I don't know if I have permission to name give you their names, but I'm kind of encouraging them to do so, and it seems to be working. So I'm very positive about how the family reconstruction vehicle will become a very powerful element of the satir model in modern times.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: That's good to hear. Thank you, John.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: Well, Tom, as a part of this conversation, would you like to ask your friends any questions, you know, just or reminisce more about times where Janet Christy silly was an important part of whatever event was going on?
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Well, I'd like to acknowledge John, because John came to the Ottawa satirist Center and helped Janet in the Satir workshops. He put on a workshop there. I hope that with your help being the director of education, letting the Satir world know that these teaching aids and centers and courses are known. And I think, and I got the feeling that sincere global is at this point where they're trying to consolidate. And Jean McClellan, for example, making the movie that she did and using that internationally can only help our society.
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Tom, one of the things that I think are of great interest to the listeners here is just hearing some stories of people and how they interacted with Virginia Satir.
Tell us stories about how Janet Christy silly met Virginia and any stories that go along with that.
[00:34:27] Speaker E: Can I tell one? Tom? Yes, go ahead, if you were involved in it. But Virginia Satir and Janet Christie Sealy went to Peru together, and they had a great relationship and experience.
And in the book that we're talking about, Janet talks about the experience that she had with Virginia going to Peru to the mountain and the teachings in Peru and how the two of them would be there. Tom, were you part of that?
[00:35:07] Speaker A: No, I wasn't on the scene then.
[00:35:10] Speaker E: So that's, to me, a very interesting story about her experience and including that Virginia was there.
The other story is that's not so good is her childhood when she was, she had to be separated from her parents during the war and the impact that had and how she describes the impact and how she resolved some of the negative, lonely, misunderstood kind of situation. Instead of this is for her safety, she might have felt abandoned and how she had to change her whole perception and experience of her childhood to a very positive, caring, saving her life aspect instead of being rejected and abandoned from her mother.
Those are stories that I think make her so real. That's so real, just to follow up.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: On that people didn't know.
On our third date, I took her to a show and she, as a little girl, was escaping the Nazis and got out of London, England. Her father had to stay in London because he was heading up a hospital there as a doctor.
And en route, a nazi sub sunk the ship beside her.
And I took her to the movie on our third date called Das Boat, which is a story about a nazi submarine captain, and he's releasing a torpedo that blows up a ship, and she's sitting beside me on our third date.
Janet was an absolute basket case.
We had to wait until the theater emptied before I could get out. And she had suppressed that. And she was, you know, 58, and she would have been a child of somewhere four or five.
And so what John was saying, she.
She relived. So someone came in with trauma. She knew what trauma was all about.
[00:37:48] Speaker C: It is always inspiring whenever, you know, that somebody went through such difficult situations and then come out being a person that everybody describes as sweet and kind and somebody who's able to see the gold in other people. Right. What a beautiful story that she's able to take some of that trauma she experienced and even look at it differently, like John mentions, so that. So that she can see how she was being protected and grow from those situations.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: And she came from a family medical, and in the family system. There were 19 doctors. I'm not sure to this day if she realized the full extent of the expectation she had of herself to measure up.
Her father was a physician to the king of England.
That's saying something in England. Her grandfather, you know, gave his service, and the korean government acknowledged him. The japanese government acknowledged him, and the russian government acknowledged him. And he was offered a knighthood in England and turned it down. So, you know, she saw her grandfather being humble, and she certainly didn't flaunt her intelligence and position.
[00:39:18] Speaker C: Well, are there any other stories that any of you would like to share?
[00:39:24] Speaker E: Well, I think something about her and her brother Tom. She had a real connection with her brother.
There was something in her early childhood where I think they had, were parted for a while, and they were separated. And then later, much later, of course, in our time, her brother got killed on a car in a walking accident on the street. And the impact that had on her as her. She lost her. Her brother. Any comments on that, Tom?
[00:40:06] Speaker A: That, yeah, there was definitely with Janet, a caring issue.
When they were coming across from the ocean, they lost him on the ship, and they found him on a deck up on the railing looking over into the ocean.
And her mother, so she took on a mother role very much of looking after this guy Dougal.
And the Dougal.
I was there, you know, he's in the room when he was saying, you know, Janet, back off, you know, stop being a mother to me.
And unfortunately, that was the latter part of his life, and that relationship was improving in respecting his independence.
And he had a difficult marriage.
I'm not blaming either his wife or himself, but Janet was always there trying to give guidance, both to him and his children.
So she knew that aspect of family dynamics. And she had four children, all of which became doctors.
And she was in touch with nature, had a cottage, and it was. Both of us enjoyed that environment.
She was athletic, but she diagnosed her hip problem in medical school, so she had two hips replaced. She was also a girl who received the gold cord in girl guides, and she received it from Baden Powell in England.
And I didn't know until about two years after we were married that she liked tenting, but because of her hip, we didn't. Well, we did do it twice and enjoyed it, but she certainly liked nature, and I'm sure that she would be very pleased. Meryl. She was a student of Janet's and an indigenous lady. Lisa Burke and Valerie Rowe and Lynn Smith all have, you know, carried on satir practices, either individually or with groups. So she definitely planted the seed.
It's sorry that the center didn't carry on, but as I say, working for five to $7 an hour was another story.
[00:43:30] Speaker C: Well, Tom, your friends know that these years have been difficult in that you're still in the midst of grief.
Janet, Christie Seeley was a special person to a lot of people, but she was your sweetheart. And I'd just like to open it up to both Richard and John, just to say a word of blessing to you, as these are still painful times for you.
[00:43:56] Speaker E: I think, Tom, that in retrospect, you have so much to appreciate, both what Janet provided with you, for you, and what you provided. And I hope you can go on an appreciation phase now as the grieving continues and appreciate your life, her life.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Thank you, John.
There's no question that we were a team.
I'm counting up. There was five major changes and accepting that. And I know, for example, I'm helping in a soup kitchen with a men's group one night a week, and I know I've got to get up and walk around the block.
Seeing Janet, it reminded me of what it must have been like in Auschwitz. There's no question I'm happy that she passed when she did.
Seeing a person with that talent, personality and warmth of heart, she certainly would want it. It amazes me that I'm 84 and the times that we were together.
You know the old story, if you find something that you like and love, you won't work a day in your life.
And I was certainly blessed to have that time with Janet and helping society in Ottawa.
[00:45:51] Speaker D: Richard, I would just say I was on a because I've been talking to you since she passed. You know, you and I have been in regular communication, and I remember you're joining Stephen Young's men's group and talking about your grief. And Steven told you you're the best thing that ever happened to Janet and the reason that this center was successful. Janet was a great therapist and a teacher, but that was a major project. They have 50 to 100 people there and pull that off and run it. And you had a major part of that, brother. You know, that was your doing. And I'm glad you're getting out to the soup kitchen because that was a big contribution you made. And then you get this gap when you close the center, you know, when you didn't have that. And now you're getting back out to doing things like that as well as getting all on these Zoom calls. You're on many Zoom calls.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Well, I'm looking for the fun button and I don't want to be a burden to my son and daughter. And the only, a dear friend from 70 years ago said, tom, if it's going to be, it's up to me. And I keep repeating that. And I also keep repeating, if you can't take 20 minutes for meditation, you need an hour.
Does that sound familiar? John?
I had a nickel for every time I said that to myself and get out of bed. I'd be a rich man, John.
So it's nice to have that. And I. Michael, the suggestions that I throw out, you've always been positive.
And my attitude is, you know, you pick the brilliant suggestions and run with it.
So I'm glad and I truly believe Satir needs you at this point. I think, you know, satir needs more leadership or courses to take leadership. And so I appreciate that.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: I was going to make mention of just the involvement that you have maintained even through these last difficult years. You've been so involved in making sure that you're loving people.
And even in the most painful moments when we've talked and there's been tears, you'll always throw a joke out there and you're still, you're so kind and compassionate that you want to make sure that I knew it was a joke.
And you so, you know I'm joking, right? You know, and, um. And I just love your humor. I love that you have a spirit that continues the work. Um, I appreciate when you make suggestions because you care deeply. You want this to be successful. I didn't know Janet, and I missed out, but I got to know something that was really precious. As a marriage and family therapist who have been doing this work for 23 years, it is really great to know a man who's made it till death do you part. And the love that you have for Janet is so evident.
I hope to be that man for my wife and when I'm gone.
Or that she could remember me as loving her like you have loved Janet.
[00:49:31] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:49:35] Speaker C: Gentlemen. Go ahead.
[00:49:37] Speaker D: I want to say one more thing. Thank you, Michael, for bringing up a humor, because I talked about Janet's sense of humor. They were a pair. And tom's on the. I learned men's calls, and I see them all the time. His. I really appreciate his sense of humor. Well, you're a funny guy, Tom.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: I got to say this to all four of you.
I I don't know if I'm more aware one liners that I make or not since Janet's death, but I'm. I'm kind of surprised at myself when I come out with a one liner that's so irrelevant or relevant.
Okay. Thank you, guys.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: Well, gentlemen, it is. It's been a true blessing to get together as a group, to remember Janet, Chrissy Seeley, to hear about Satir's model and the way that it develops, continues to develop. I want to show my appreciation to each of you just because of what you contribute and the friendships that you've been able to provide me. I thank you for coming together. Thank you so much for being a part of today's podcast, and I hope.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: Other senior satir leaders will have a similar podcast for the archives and use as teaching AIDS.
[00:51:06] Speaker C: Thank you, Tom.
As we conclude this episode of the.
[00:51:10] Speaker B: Virginia Satir podcast, I want to leave you with a reminder that the journey of self discovery and transformation is ongoing.
Virginia Satir's wisdom continues to inspire us to nurture healthier relationships, foster open communication, and embrace personal growth. Remember, you hold the power to create positive change in your life and the lives of those around you. Well, that's it for today's episode. See you next week. Thanks for listening to the Virginia Satir podcast. Be sure to, like, subscribe and give us a review wherever you listen to the podcast and share this with a friend. Also, for more information on Virginia Satir, you can go to satirglobal.com or liveconnectedtherapy.com. Until next time, be kind to yourself and to others. You are a miracle.
